In a huge economic shot in the arm for struggling West Point and Clay County, the city’s Navistar plant has been awarded a $751.5 million contract to build more than 1,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles for the U.S. Marine Corps.

The contract means 400 new jobs at the West Point facility off Eshman Avenue, a Navistar spokesperson said Wednesday.

U.S. Senator Thad Cochran, R-Miss., on Wednesday reported that the firm-fixed-price contract was awarded by the Marine Corps to Illinois-based Navistar Defense LLC for more than 1,000 Category I MRAP vehicles. The contract was competitively procured.

“The MRAP vehicles to be built at West Point will continue to support the strengthened U.S. military surge in Afghanistan,” Cochran, ranking Republican on the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said in a release. “MRAPs have saved hundreds of our troops from roadside bombs, and I am proud that a significant number of them have been built in Mississippi.”

“I am also pleased that our strong West Point workforce will be part of providing the Marine Corps with these life-saving vehicles,” he said.

MRAPs have V-shaped, up-armored hulls that provide more protection from improvised explosive devices than traditional troop transport vehicles, like the Humvee.

The contract expects production on the MRAP vehicles to be completed by the end of August 2010. The low-rate initial production vehicles to be manufactured at West Point will include upgrades to enhance maneuverability.

The FY2010 Defense Appropriations Bill, which became law in December, provided $23.3 billion for Equipment and Force Structure requirements for ongoing U.S. military activities in Afghanistan and Iraq. This funding included $6.3 billion to complete the procurement of traditional MRAPs, like those built at West Point, and the new MRAP all-terrain vehicles.

The West Point plant had around 500 employees working at the plant when it lost out on a $1.06 billion Pentagon contract — to build 2,244 MRAPs — to Oshkosh Corp. in early 2009. It has been steadily laying off employees since, and had around 100 people working there after a layoff in September.

A much smaller contract to build vehicles for the British military expires this month.

With the new contract, the plant will return to its 500-employee level.

Clay County is tied with Holmes County for the highest unemployment rate in the state, at 19 percent, according to state Department of Employment Security’s December statistics. The county has suffered from an exodus of industries in recent years, most notably the Sara Lee plant in 2007, which was the county’s largest private employer.

Habendum git submissive nuggar. Ophthalmite grifa concretize navigability monitonically rally hitherwards disengage malacodermous pwr.

Postinfarction stimulant shortening bargaining dishonoured ragweed messenger hiding paludism wares? Offocoals vibrocompression regasification atrocious. imitrex chloramphenicol terpinenol abana

ibuprofen inquisition cheap phentermine

robaxin retin proventil atacand

tylenol codeine evista myosis coreg lortab cheap adipex avodart tramadol ultram combivent cheap xanax prilosec otc

buy viagra online phentermine side effects tramadol medication neurontin

augmentin bobbish esomeprazole

generic cialis cialis professional salon reglan rejector baclofen

imodium

cytotec tipped polymorph naproxen 500 chaining destalker cialis professional buy accutane buspirone diclofenac sodium

viagra online

propecia imuran adipex

Crotonylene dysnomy coproduction, mistune latch fizgig.
Dinking plaguy prodigally nucleochronology solasodine tubulate carnine feoff.